Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., then Chief of Naval Operations, gave a
speech at the launching ceremony for the USS Brewton on Saturday, 24 July 1971 at
Avondale Shipyards in Westwego, Louisiana. Admiral Zumwalt graciously donated the
text of that speech, which you can read by clicking here. Admiral
Zumwalt's wife Mouza was the ship's sponsor, and christened her on 23 June 1971. Admiral Zumwalt
also knew John Brewton personally, and his speech is a testament to the courage and honor shown
by John, and the other young men and women that served in Vietnam.

Admiral Zumwalt was also the author of a wonderful book entitled On Watch
which details his experiences as CNO, and over his 30 year naval career.

Admiral Zumwalt passed away on Sunday, January 2, 2000, at the age of 79. Senator Russell
Feingold from Wisconsin gave a tribute to him in the 2nd session of the 106th congress. You can
read the text of that tribute here.

The USS Brewton carried the remains of the unknown soldier
from the Vietnam war from Honolulu to Alameda NAS, San Francisco from 17 May
1984 to 24 May 1984. An honor guard of Marines stood watch over the casket in
the helo bay for the entire trip. For more information on the ceremony click here.

Sea Classics Magazine published a great article about the Brewton by Richard Shrader
in June, 1988. You can read the text of the article by clicking
HERE. It contains a great amount of information about the first few years of the
USS Brewton's service, and also about John C. Brewton himself. You can also view the
original article complete with pictures here:
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Do you enjoy building model kits? There is a model of the
Brewton available from AFV. (Actually it's a model of the USS Robert E. Peary
FF-1073, but it includes extra decals for the Brewton, as well as the USS Kirk
FF-1087). You can see a picture of the box cover HERE.
The kit is a 1/700 scale model, which is about 8" long. The kit is out of print,
but you may be able to find model shops still carrying it. There is also usually at least
one up for sale on Ebay at any given time. You can see
pictures of a completed kit by clicking HERE,
HERE, and HERE. This kit was built by Rob Mackie (AFV model club)

For the more serious model builder, a 54" long remote control version is
also available from BaD Ship Models
for about $200. You can see a picture of it HERE.

A large size model of the Knox class is finally available from Iron Shipwright
models. This is 1:350 scale (about 18 inches long) and very detailed. You can see pictures of
a completed kit here, here,
here, and here (built by Dave Judy).
This is a resin kit and fairly expensive, at about $165. I'm told that resin kits are expensive
because the mold can only be used a certain number of times before it's no good, and must be redone.
You can read reviews of the kit here, and
here. To order,
visit Iron Shipwright. If anyone out
there is a professional model builder, I'd be interested in quotes on what it would cost to have this kit
built out at museum quality. E-mail me for for more info.

Click here for information on the US Navy ribbons that were
painted on the USS Brewton. Also included are links to sites where you can purchase replacement service
ribbons.

You can see Deck plans for the Knox class frigates, second deck here.
This is a large file, and you will need to use the scroll bars in your web browser to move around and
see it all. If it looks "squashed" or distorted, make sure that your web browser has Automatic Image
Resizing turned OFF. In Internet Explorer you can do this by selecting "Tools/Internet Options/Advanced",
move down to the "Multimedia" section, and uncheck "Enable Automatic Image Resizing". (b/w 256k - picture from USS
Capodanno FF-1093 New Personnel Guide)